Electronic commerce, commonly known as electronic marketing, e-commerce, or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. Commerce conducted in this manner utilizes a complex web of innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, automated data collection systems, and many others. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. It would be advantageous to utilize such electronic commerce systems to provide peer-to-peer and group financial management services.
Systems and methods for providing peer-to-peer and group financial management are provided herein. An example system includes a payment processor that executes software instructions for creating and managing electronic payment accounts and an accounts database to store account data from the payment processor. The payment processor may be configured to receive a payment request from a payer, the payment request including information to identify a payee and a payment amount. The payment processor may be further configured to determine if the accounts database includes an account associated with the payee, and based on a determination that the accounts database includes an account associated with the payee, send an electronic message to the payee that notifies the payee of the payment request. The payment processor may also be configured to access the accounts database to determine if the payee is identified as having a trusted relationship with the payer, and based on a determination that the payee is identified in the accounts database as having a trusted relationship with the payer, access the accounts database to transfer the payment amount from an account associated with the payer to the account associated with the payee without first receiving authorization for the transfer from the payee.
A method of transferring funds from a payer to a payee in a electronic payment system that includes a payment processor and an accounts database may include the following steps: receiving at the payment processor a payment request from the payer, the payment request including information to identify the payee and a payment amount; accessing an accounts database to determine if the accounts database includes an account associated with the payee; based on a determination that the accounts database includes an account associated with the payee, sending an electronic message from the payment processor to the payee that notifies the payee of the payment request; accessing the accounts database to determine if the payee is identified as having a trusted relationship with the payer; and based on a determination that the payee is identified in the accounts database as having a trusted relationship with the payer, the payment processor accessing the accounts database to transfer the payment amount from an account associated with the payer to the account associated with the payee without first receiving authorization for the transfer from the payee.
A financial management system may include a primary account, a sub-account associated with the primary account; and a payment processor for controlling payments made to and from the primary and sub-accounts. A plurality of users have access to the sub-account, and a single user has access to the primary account.